asdf wrote:

Okay what if someone has a zones 2-6 travelcard and goes into zone 1 on a
National Rail service where PrePay *is* accepted, e.g. staying on a one
service beyond Stratford into Liverpool Street. How are they to touch in
at
the start at stations with no barriers?

That does seem to be a bit of a gap in the system.

Indeed. Since, to my knowledge, I've not accrued any "uncompleted journey"
notices (I seem to have been lucky when going beyond Zone 6 on the Met)
despite everyday only touching in/out at one end I'd guess the system
assumes I entered/exited legitimately in those circumstances. Which makes it
even stranger that I apparently do have to somehow touch in at the start of
any journey that ends in my going out of zone. (I can understand completely
the need to touch out on the return trip to prove I came back into zone,
rather than jumped the barriers at say Chalfont & Latimet.) Again the Oyster
information on this is woefully inadequate and I doubt asking onsite TfL
staff would yield the answer on this.

I also wonder what would happen if the station they started at did
have barriers. Would the card have a record of where they'd touched
in, and would it know what fare to charge at Liverpool Street?

Ilford has barriers - has anyone tried this? (My ticket covers zone 1 so
can't test it.)

More annoyingly when I went to Romford the other month the barriers lacked
touch pads. How do Oyster season ticket users even get through these gates
normally? (I was lucky as the side gate was open.) And is Romford the only
place within the six zones which lacks readers on its barriers?

So if I'm taking a single service that starts at a station where I can't
touch in through no fault of my own, and I use the extension facility on a
legitimate route, I am liable for a penalty fare for not doing something
that is impossible or me to do?

Apparently so. Hopefully an inspector would be lenient if you
explained.

But if the system has already charged my card, will the inspector have any
power to actually do anything?